LARKANA, Sept 10: Sindh National Front chairman Mumtaz Ali Bhutto has said that mass arrests, blockades, siege of airports and deporting Mian Nawaz Sharif speak of the government’s hollowness and a visible sign of conceding retreat after its earlier defeat at the hands of lawyers. Addressing a public meeting in Ratodero on Monday, the SNF chief questioned “the tall claims of President Musharraf of enjoying peoples support” and said why he was forced to use government resources including, army, rangers and police.

Terming it colonial rulers’ style, he said the past rulers were dictators, autocrats who hated peoples’ rights and added that this government was applying similar tactics.

The rule of General Pervez Musharraf was reminiscent of colonial rulers who banked on turncoats, opportunists and bootlickers and they never stood in the time of test while the use of power was the only option with them to handle the situation, he said.

Mr Bhutto said he had forewarned General Musharraf in a meeting that ‘lotas’ would ditch him so it was better to invest in people and serve them with sincerity and honesty.

But he paid no heed to advice and now his government’s vehicle was going deep down the quagmire, he said. He said that accepting the demands of Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) in 1977, Shaheed Bhutto had agreed holding election but he was General Zia who took over.

He asked the rulers to realise the intensity of peoples’ wrath and hand over the reigns of government to the Chief Justice of Supreme Court for holding transparent elections and paving the way for transferring power to the people.

He said this government had not only suffered a defeat at the hands of Taliban and Al-Qaida but also miserably failed in controlling what he called the ‘inept’, corrupt officers, murders, and harbourers of criminals, who had added insult to injuries of the people and gifted people with hunger, poverty, unemployment, price spiral, disasters.